Combustion engines such as gasoline engines, natural gas engines, and diesel engines are widely employed on machines such as wheel loaders, excavators, on- or off-highway vehicles, etc. While generating power to drive a machine, combustion engines may also produce exhaust gases containing toxic gases, particulate matter, etc. As environmental concerns increase globally, great attention has been paid to machine emissions control. Various aftertreatment assemblies have been employed in the exhaust systems of machines to clean exhaust gases. For example, emissions control filter assemblies such as diesel particulate filters have been used to remove particulate matter from the exhaust gases. However, the substrates inside the emissions control filter assemblies may become saturated over time, for example, because of accumulation of particulate matter on the filter substrates. Therefore, filter substrates may need servicing, such as cleaning or replacement.
Servicing a filter substrate can be a labor intensive, costly, and time consuming process. The filter substrate is typically located inside the emissions control filter assembly, which is usually securely installed on the machine as part of an exhaust system. To access the filter substrate, typically one must disassemble the emissions control filter assembly from the machine. This may require the use of welding tools or other tools to cut the connection between the filter assembly and the exhaust pipes. After removing the filter assembly from the machine, the assembly may need to be further disassembled to allow access to the filter substrate. After the filter substrate is replaced or cleaned, the filter assembly is then re-assembled, and re-installed in the exhaust system on the machine. The entire process may require a significant amount of machine down time, and could be costly.
An exhaust gas cleanup apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,296 (the '296 patent) issued to Kojima on Jun. 26, 2007. The apparatus of the '296 patent includes a cylindrical outer casing, and an inner casing detachably located in the outer casing. The inner casing is removable from the outer casing and includes two handles located on its outer circumferential surface. A pressing member is provided at the downstream end of the outer casing to press against the inner casing and cover the end of the outer casing, and an exhaust gas emitting hole is provided on the pressing member. The illustrated embodiments of the '296 patent relate to an exhaust gas purifier that is intended to be located at the terminal end of the exhaust system. The '296 patent also discloses generally, but does not illustrate, that the exhaust gas purifier may be located at the middle of the exhaust gas passage by connecting a detachable, flexible pipe.
The apparatus disclosed in the '296 patent may not be applicable to some exhaust systems where an aftertreatment assembly is disposed in a middle section of the exhaust system upstream of other exhaust system components. Installation of the apparatus disclosed in the '296 patent in a middle section of an exhaust system would result in the exhaust gas emitting hole on the pressing member being connected with, for example, an exhaust pipe, or another component of the exhaust system. Such a connection would be problematic for readily accessing the inner casing and removing the aftertreatment assembly. Even with the use of a detachable and flexible pipe, it may be difficult to access and open the pressing member and service the aftertreatment assembly.
The method and system of the present disclosure are directed toward improvements in the existing technology.